The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Africa’s largest trading bloc, has announced a new secretary general. Chileshe Kapwepwe, a former deputy minister of finance from 2008 to 2011 in the Zambian government, is the new secretary-general. The announcement was made during the 20th Heads of State and Government Summit in Lusaka. She succeeds Zimbabwe’s Sindiso Ngwenya who has stepped down and becomes the first female to head Africa’s biggest trading bloc. Kapwepwe, who is also the chairperson of Zambia’s Revenue Authority, served as the International Monetary Fund Alternate Executive Director for its Africa Group One Constituency from 2012. With 21 members, following the admission of Tunisia and Somalia, COMESA was formed in 1994, replacing the Preferential Trade Area which had existed since 1981.